Winter storm slams Midwest and Northeast

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) - Public safety in Maine were advising residents to stay home as a powerful winter storm blew across the Midwest and Northeast Sunday while the regions still were digging out from Saturday's heavy mix of snow and ice that created hazardous road conditions and delayed flights.

The storm produced a combination of snow, sleet and rain that was blamed for at least deaths, two in Michigan and one in Wisconsin, according to media reports.

Forecasters said up to 19 inches of snow was expected in New England.

On Sunday morning, flights headed to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Newark International Airport in Newark, N.J., and John F. Kennedy International Airport and La Guardia Airport in New York were experiencing delays that averaged less than two hours. The Federal Aviation Administration urged passengers to check with their airlines to find out if their flights would be affected by the conditions.

More than 200 flights were canceled at O'Hare on Saturday, Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Gregg Cunningham told the AP.

In some parts of the Chicago area, nearly a foot of snow has already fallen. Up to 14 inches of snow may accumulate in parts of Michigan by late Sunday, AP reported.

About 103,000 customers were blacked out Sunday morning in parts of Pennsylvania, according to AP. The icy precipitation, coupled with high winds that the National Weather Service forecast for Sunday, created the right conditions for people to lose power, said Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency director Robert P. French, in a news release.

Sunday's storm came less than a week after an ice storm blamed for at least 38 deaths, mostly in traffic accidents, in the middle of the country. Thousands of homes and business reportedly still had no electricity in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

Meanwhile, up north, the Toronto Public Library, the world's busiest urban public library system, closed all its branches on Sunday due to the bad weather.

Despite the heavy snow and high winds on Sunday, meteorologists from The Weather Channel were forecasting better news for the Midwest early this week, with mostly dry conditions and slowly moderating temperatures.

In the Northeast, the outlook calls for heavy snow mixed with sleet into early Monday from western and northern New York to Maine, with some areas seeing more than a foot of snow with blizzard conditions. The Weather Channel forecast calls for Monday to be windy and cold across the region.

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